7 2 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



its conclusions on actual fact. It will be interesting to note how long it will take 

 before such a very simple fact as the extreme inefficiency of the wool test is 

 universally recognised. 



ARCHEOLOGY 



The Roman Cemetery in the Infirmary Field, Chester. Part I. By R. New- 

 stead. (Annals of Archseology and Anthropology, vol. vi. No. 4.) [Pp. 52, 

 illustrated with plates and sketches.] 



In order to appreciate fully the results of the recent excavations in the Infirmary 

 Field at Chester, of which Prof. Newstead has given so clear a report, it is 

 necessary to bear in mind a few facts concerning the Roman occupation of the 

 site. The Roman fortress of Deva was established about the year 50 A.D., and 

 the twentieth legion remained in garrison there for about three centuries. 

 Whether the fortress was originally constructed of earth or of stone we cannot 

 tell ; what appears to be certain is that about the year 200, or perhaps later, 

 it was fortified with a strong stone rampart, portions of which still remain. The 

 present walls of Chester are, of course, mediaeval, and enclose a larger area 

 than did the walls of the Roman fortress ; it is only on the north and east that 

 the two coincide. In the year 1887 the remarkable discovery was made that 

 the core of the north wall was composed of Roman inscribed tombstones. In 

 the course of the next few years about 150 of these sepulchral relics were taken 

 out of the wall and removed to the Grosvenor Museum, which now contains one 

 of the richest collections of such stones in the country. It was obvious that 

 the Romans, in constructing their northern wall, had torn up, as building 

 material, the gravestones of an adjoining cemetery. 



Now the Infirmary Field, where Dr. Newstead's excavations were carried 

 out, lies just outside the north-west corner of the Roman fortress, though within 

 the bounds of mediaeval Chester. Further, not a single inscribed tombstone has 

 been discovered in the cemetery that has just come to light. It is at least 

 possible that some of the tombstones which formed the core of the north wall 

 may have been taken from this very site. 



For more than half a century sepulchral remains have been turned out at 

 intervals on this area, now known as "Lady Barrow Hey"; but it was in May 

 1912, when excavations were being made for the foundations of a new infirmary, 

 that the series of discoveries commenced which are recorded in the report before 

 us. With commendable foresight the Infirmary Board immediately requested 

 Dr. Newstead, in conjunction with Dr. John Elliott, to report on objects of 

 archaeological or anthropological interest, and down to the early months of 1914 

 they kept an assiduous watch upon the site. Since then they have made the 

 minute examination of the relics, the results of which are embodied in the present 

 report. 



Within an area about sixty feet square, on the site of the isolation wards 

 of the new infirmary, they found traces of over thirty burials of men, women, 

 and children, the orientation of the bodies being either north and south or east 

 and west. The relics found in the tombs, as well as the form of the tombs 

 themselves, leave no doubt that we have here part of the burial-ground where 

 the Roman legionary soldiers, their wives, children, and freedmen were laid to 

 rest. Though the burials were by inhumation in all cases, yet there is a curious 

 variation in the forms of the graves ; presumably a difference of rank is indicated. 

 In nineteen cases the bodies were simply laid in rectangular trenches cut in the 



